Dune: Awakening, the open world survival MMO based on the franchise that’s currently lighting up box offices around the world with the arrival of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, has just had a new gameplay trailer debut thanks to a special “Dune: Awakening Direct” presentation.
The two-minute trailer shows off a look at the Unreal Engine 5-powered world as well as short clips of exploration, traversal, crafting and combat both on-foot and in iconic vehicles like the Ornithopter.
Naturally the glimpses of gameplay are encased in some slick editing and canned sequences, but what’s there certainly looks nice and fits the brief. It’s coming from the folks at Funcom, who also created 2018’s pretty-decent Conan Exiles, which feels like a good enough blueprint to build off of for something like Dune.
You can watch the new “Survive Arrakis” trailer below:
Dune: Awakening will feature all of the hallmarks of an “open world survival MMO” including surviving in harsh conditions, in this case managing water supply and consumption in ways familiar to fans of the books/graphic novels/movies, as well as crafting of vehicles, gear and home bases and a mix of co-operative and PvP play.
Excitingly, sandworms will play a big role as an invincible and ever-present threat that can only be avoided or redirected using the classic Thumpers.
In the first episode of Dune: Awakening Direct, the studio talks about how having access to the production teams on the Dune films and even the sets themselves has helped inform the game, and how using Unreal 5’s bespoke technologies like Lumen and Nanite is going to deliver those distinct desert locales and Dune visuals in a big way. It’s a great watch, so check that out below:
Dune: Awakening closed betas are already happening, and will continue to occur with bigger player pools over time. Funcom promises that there’s more news to come this year. You can wishlist the game on Steam here.
